The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2015 - Issue 41 | Page 62

Tewitt Hall Farm
years ago when, with a loan
from the Yorkshire Bank, they
installed a wind turbine. This
has exceeded expectations
and on the back of the surplus
revenue generated they have
installed two robotic milkers,
primarily aimed at increasing
milk production but with no
more time spent in the parlour.
Already Jonty says he wishes
he had bought three. The
Robots mean now the herd is
milked 24/7 with the cows being
milked when it suits them, and
this has brought huge savings
on electric as milking twice a
day before required a lot of
electricity. Now the robots much
more closely match the turbines
production cycle. Another
big benefit of this strategic
milking is a big reduction of
mastitis in the herd. The robotic
system provides a whole raft
of information on each animal
including flags for possible
mastitis, yield per animal,

when they last were milked,
expected yield and much more.
At the same time as putting in
the robots, the buildings were
upgraded to provide more cow
comfort which is very important
to the Sharps.
CONSTANT EDUCATION
Alas though, there are
cases that when the cows are
comfortable and content, they
behave like teenagers and
can’t be bothered to get up! So
a degree of training needs to
take place with certain animals.
Late lactating cows don’t
always milk well. So there is a
need for constant education.
The machinery also throws out
alarms when there is a problem
so it’s not unheard of for Jonty
to be in the milking parlour at
3am!
Thankfully, it is not all left
to Jonty now, as he has a
young dairyman, Jake, who
recently completed college

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